Congratulations to the High School Quiz Bowl team on their first Capitol Conference championship since 2008! Zoe Fickbohm, Ben Haggar, Grant Hansen, Avery McKennan, John McKennan, and Aaron Johnson went undefeated, notching wins against Syracuse, DC West, and two wins against the defending champions, Platteview, to capture the title. The team will represent Fort Calhoun at the ESU 3 tournament on Monday, March 11, with a chance to go to the state Quiz Bowl competition in April. Great job, guys!
L-R Coach, Mr. Justin Shields, John McKennan, Zoe Fickbohm, Avery McKennan, Grant Hansen, Ben Haggar and Aaron Johnson. Photo by Mr. Shields
Congratulations to the art students who earned awards from this year’s Scholastic State Art competition. On Saturday March 2nd the students attended a ceremony, held annually, at the Omaha Public Schools Teacher Administrative Center building. There were over 3,800 works of art submitted from students across the state of Nebraska, and just over 34% earned awards. Fort Calhoun students earned a total of 29 awards, with multiple students earning multiple awards. All the entries that received awards from across the state will be on display at the Omaha Public Schools Teacher Administrative Center, located at 3215 Cuming St., from February 26 until March 29, 2019.
The 2019 award recipients are: (left to right) front row: Cory Underwood, Stephanie Mlynarik, Katie Barta, Cameron Reynolds, Nathan Blizzard, and Avery McKennan; back row: Mr. High Horse, Emilia Finke, Alyssa Mitchell, Bailey Donovan, Evelyn Holmstedt, and Kennedy Bradburn. Not pictured: Nathan Premer, and Espen Hervik.
Award recipients are as follows
Katie Barta, 9 – Two Gold Key for Drawing and Illustration
Cory Underwood, 9 – Honorable Mention, Still life Drawing and Illustration
Mrs. Wellman-HighHorse’s English 12 class is reading the memoir “Night”, written by Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel. They attended the “Searching for Humanity” Holocaust exhibit at the SAC Museum. Students had a guided tour of the Holocaust exhibit, participated in an anti-bias and the dangers of being a bystander activity, and listened to a speaker whose mother was a Holocaust survivor. Two students who attended reported that it was very touching and they went through a “roller coaster of emotions.” They said, of course, it was very sad but then hearing stories about how some children were rescued and how second-generation survivors are keeping the memories of their ancestors alive is touching too.
Congratulations to Landon Miller, Tristan Fuhrman, Jayden Hunter and Brandon Evans who performed very well at the Elkhorn Band Olympics on February 16th. Landon placed 5th with his Bari-Sax, Tristan and Brandon also placed 5th in percussion, and Jayden received gold for with his Alto-Sax. Great Job Boys!
Students at Fort Calhoun Elementary participated in a fun art project recently. The PFE sponsored an Artist in Residence, Julia Noyes from UNL. The program involved the entire school and consisted of a curriculum-based art project developed and conducted by Julia. The students learned about the process of making mosaics and took part in creating two murals to be displayed in the school. We want to thank the PFE and all their volunteers for hosting this event, and all the families who donated supplies for the project.
Pull out that old trunk or stash of old family photos and see if you can fill one of the gaps! Read on to get the “scoop” on this project.
As some of you know we are in the process of putting together a display system to recognize, and celebrate students past and present. The system is made up of a number of components, the Trophy case, the Wall of Excellence, the Runner-up Wall, the Alumni Center and an electronic records center that will allow us to show case all manner of information about a student’s accomplishments over the years, whether it be an activity, sport, fine art, academics, or whatever it might be.
This in many ways is a huge and daunting task, but as they say “no pain, no gain”. We have a good part of the physical components of system put together but are awaiting a few additional parts that will not come out of production until the middle of March. We are working diligently in every spare moment to add data to the system, there is enough now so you can see the capabilities and what the potential is for the system. If you haven’t seen it, you should check it out the next time you are in the building, and if you like what you see, be sure and thank Mr. Wemhoff, as he has taken the lead on the countless hours of work it has taken to get it thus far.
My specific interest and effort are in the historical aspect of the system. Thanks to everyone who searched their closet or storage area to find and loan yearbooks. We are hot on the trail of the last two yearbooks, 1979 and 1975, as soon as we have them in hand, we will be sending all of the yearbooks for the District off to be scanned, which will make them available on the touch screen. What we learned gathering the yearbooks, the first yearbook (as we know them) was produced for the District in 1955, there wasn’t a yearbook for 1956 as the company went bankrupt before it was produced. They did not do yearbooks in 1960, 1961, 1962 or 1963, not sure why.
The next thing we need assistance with are class photographs. The first graduating class for Fort Calhoun Community Schools was 1893. Our goal is to find photographs for every class from 1893 until present day. Since we have yearbooks from 1955 until present day, we have those years with the exception of 1960. For the years from 1940 until 1954, we need these years, 1952, 1946, 1945, 1942 and 1940. For the years from 1893 until 1939 it is easier to list the years we have, they are 1937, 1936, 1935, 1925, 1902, 1901, 1894, and 1893. If you have old photos please look to see if you have one of the missing years. We would greatly appreciate it ifyou would allow us to borrow and scan a photo from a missing year. Thanks to a document produced by students in 1933 (a history of the District) we have the names for each graduating class from 1893 until 1933 already in the system, now we just need photos!
If you have questions you can call or e-mail Jennifer Gepson, 402-468-5591, jgepson@ftcpioneers.org, or if you find a photo you are willing to lend so we can scan, you can drop it of Monday through Friday at the High School office.
Congratulations to our students who participated in this year’s UNO Honor Band. They were L_R Avery McKennan, Savannah Lukasiewicz, Ryan Swierczek, McKenzie Hansen, Aaron Johnson, and Nate Bonacci.
Our 100th-day celebration was STEM-based. Students built using 100 coins, cups, dominoes, and other objects. Students had fun with different art activities, songs, and a 100th-day snack! They especially liked making their 100th-day t-shirts. The older students even got to celebrate by having a 100th-day trivia contest and helping the younger students with their centers. We are 100 days brighter here at Fort Calhoun!
Students at Fort Calhoun Elementary had a ton of fun at Dance Camp on January 12th. More than 40 girls attended this event organized by the High School Dance Team. This year, they had a “Greatest Showman” theme and danced at halftime of the Girls’ Varsity Game against Yutan. According to some 3rd grade girls who attended, it was a blast because the got to eat pizza, spend time with friends and at the end of the dance, they all threw roses into the air.
